"The 33"-Road Bike RacingWe set this forum up for our members to discuss their experiences in either pro or amateur racing, whether they are the big races, or even the small backyard races. Don't forget to update all the members with your own race results.

I'd skip the super aero right now and just get a custom psimet/ron ruff/other custom wheelsmith build.

I'd probably go with something like kinlin niobium 30 rims, 28 spoke rear, 2x, brass nipples, 24 spoke front, and either a white or dt swiss hub. You'll be in the $500-600 range, but will have a bombproof set of wheels good enough for training and racing.

there's also a new kinlin 380 rim. It's 100g heavier than the 300 and $60 more expensive. It's also limited to drillings of 20 & 24H, but i think you could probably pair it up with a xr300 rear for a relatively aero wheelset

I've got Kinlin 300s built by Psimet. Great all arounders. I raced on them last year and used them for cross this year. My rear is built on a PT and I have a Quarq no so they live on the cross bike for the most part.

I'd go with lighter all-round wheels rather than sacrifice a lot of weight for aero. Use these as your base wheels. Later get some lighter aero wheels (like tubulars).

I bought a slew of wheels last year, all HEDs. Stinger6 tubulars, Bastogne clinchers (non-aero), and Jet6/Jet9 (f/r) clinchers (aero). I rarely ride the Jets because they're too heavy - they take forever to wind up, I don't do a lot of sustained high speed on them, and I've felt my legs wither as I do yet another jump using the heavy wheels in a training crit.

I figure aero wheels really comes into play once you're going over 30 mph. Yes, physics dictates that they affect you at all speeds, but to make a noticeable-to-me difference, 30 mph. When I deal with my two pairs of HED clinchers, with their weight difference (and all of it in the rims since the HEDs use the same hubs) that's kind of the cut off point.

Most of my training rides take place with speed south of 20 mph, some descents and little jumps bringing me above that. For those speeds I'd take the Bastognes. Although if you see me in SoCal I may have one or both Jets specifically for the additional weight.

When I go hunting for drafts I'll put on the Jets though and hoard my jumps until it's time I've also done some group rides with just the rear (Jet9), specifically because I expect some fast riding (like when I rode a few times with the group botto rides with). He commented positively to me after a particularly hard effort I made - I think a big part of why I could make that effort were the wheels on the bike. I can tell you that I skipped turns when in an escape with him and one of my teammates, so it wasn't like I'm stronger than him.

Most of my races tend to be 25-27 mph, lots of 30-35 mph bursts (say like 10 to 60 seconds, maybe longer), and lots of pressure to move up when the group is collectively going 35-38 mph (means I have to go at least a few mph faster than that). In those situations aero wheels make a decent difference. It's like having a slight tailwind, for lack of a better way of describing it. You can just keep accelerating. Although I chose the Stinger6s for their weight/aero factors (1400g/60mm/wide-aero-rim), I sometimes wish I got a Stinger9 as well. If you look at the worker bikes in the Tour for HTC, they're on Stinger9s. Cav is on a combo Stinger6/Stinger9 f/r. The Stinger6s accelerate like there's no tomorrow, and they maintain speed once I'm up there. The Stinger9s would be like a sail in a particular side/crosswind, going to negative drag.

fyi You can ALWAYS go super tall/aero in the rear. Always. It only makes the bike harder to turn. Disk wheel, whatever. The front gets sketchy when it's gusty/windy. I actually think a taller rear wheel makes a taller front wheel possible in gusty conditions.

So for now get something lighter and basic. Later get some weapon grade wheels.

at 200 pounds for the rider... I would not think 1 pound off the wheelset would make a huge difference. i notice a big difference in wind up when i go from aero clincher to less aero tubulars - 1.5 full pounds less weight though. but I am not 200 pounds.

Although I'm a bit lighter now I raced for a few years at 180-200 lbs (5'7"). A pound or two on the wheels makes a difference in acceleration to me, at least when it's the 10th hard jump within a few laps of racing. I even went to using non-aero wheels in some races because I was exhausting myself accelerating the heavier aero wheels I had (at that time, when I made the move to 10s, I had just TriSpokes and Eurus available - I used the Eurus almost exclusively). Heck I even used just the TriSpoke front to try and get the aero while using the Eurus rear.

I used to think that aero > weight virtually all the time but now I think that's less than accurate. I think the equation holds true when speeds stay high. For lower speeds (i.e. training rides that I do, Cat 5 races I've seen) aero wheels are overrated. Weight becomes more interesting at that point.

^ thanks but the wheelsets I'm looking at are around 500.00 for the price of the edge wheel sets I could buy several Soul wheel sets... or go the custom route with psimet and likely still find a training set too

Unless you are going for a strictly climbing race, more aero is always better (unless we're talking super heavy). In addition, if you're going to go aero, go aero. Ie. If you want aerowheels go at least 50mm (if you can afford to go light at the same time then fine). But also don't go for a 30mm thinking are aero and light as you are not going to get a significant aero benefit.